Sunday, January 20, 2013

Good Morning All.I guess we all, at one time or other have had something happen to us that is sort of creepy. Sometimes, perhaps most times, we can explain the happening afterwards, but sometimes we can't.Such a thing happened to me a couple of days ago and I thought it was worth chronicling on the of chance that someone else would find it sort of odd and funny at the same time.In the newspaper that morning I had just finished reading an article about the mystery of the person who, for many years, left a tribute of three roses and a half finished bottle of Cognac at the one time grave site of Edgar Allen Poe.I had, in the past, read about this on several occasions, but had never dwelt long on it, but on this occasion I was somehow driven, no... make that mentally urged, to re-read the Poem "The Raven", just to refresh it in my mind, and I proceeded to do just that. I sat at my computer reading through the poem and was struck anew with the simplicity and perfection of the meter of the Poem.After reading the poem I sat for some time deliberating, as we all do sometimes, on whether to print the Poem and create a file for it, and ultimately decided not to do so.At just that time, while my mind was still wound up in the ball of string that was the subject currently before me, and lost in thought, as we all sometimes are, when suddenly, just after reading the line, "Came a tapping, at my door", there WAS a tapping, a rapid and insistent tapping at MY front door.Folks I don't mind telling you, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up, and I had goosebumps on top of goosebumps.I got up from my chair to go to the door, half expecting I don't know what, but certainly something odd, opened the door and found not a Raven, not any other infernal symbol or mysterious avatar, but instead, Just the the Pastor of a local church in our small town stopping by to ask my wife and I to visit his church sometime.I thanked the Minister politely and told him he would have to excuse me for being abrupt, but I had something on the stove, received his acknowledgement, and closed the door.Now, this will sound a little silly, but after the Minister and his companion were on down the street, I timidly re-opened my door and looked to make sure there was nothing sinister "awaiting at my door". There wasn't.Now I am 77 years old, or 539 in Dog's years, and I could count on the fingers of one hand the odd things that have happened to me or that I have witnessed, in my lifetime, that were unexplainable.There was one other instance that I'll recite, then I'll close this too-long post.My wife and I had gone for a Sunday drive outside of Natchez, Mississippi, where we lived at the time, and had stopped at a small Civil War Cemetery. My wife and I had walked a little ahead of our friends and were enjoying the peaceful quiet beauty of the little graveyard, when we came upon one of the hundreds of markers we had seen, and when I looked down at the plain back of the stone, I HAD to get out of there. I don't remember what I said to my wife, but I left the area we were in and was soon relieved of the ghostly panic feeling I had. I still do not know why I had to get away from that area, but I confess freely, without feeling a bit cowardly, I DID.I would like to say I went back and investigated what name was on that stone, but I never did.These are just two odd things that have happened to me in my lifetime. there have been other, which I may someday publish, but if any of you have strange but true stories in your life, please let me know. We will all enjoy them.Stay WellTOP